Waiting
by AvataREX
Summary: It's been nine years since Madoka's sacrifice (end of the series). Homura deals with the aftermath-unwilling to forget Madoka but also unable to wait indefinitely for her. She continues her life in the meantime-now as a more mature magical being but as a magical girl nonetheless. The lemon will be arriving shortly.
1. Chapter 1

From up here the city lights bled together into one shimmering continuous pool of gold. Within it hope, despair, confusion, and everything in between (well, life in general) paddled about innocuously and furiously day in day out. Somewhere in that chaos was meaning, however, and she had to believe in it.

The cool night wind dragged its fingers languorously through Akemi Homura's hair as she silently watched over the clueless twinkling world beneath her. She closed her eyes with a small sigh and tilted back her head to receive it like a cat being stroked. Legs dangled hundreds of feet above the streets from her precarious perch atop the neck of some long forgotten crane. The silhouette eerily resembled a woman sitting astride her noble dinosaur steed- together gazing out over their domain like two world-weary vigilantes. It was here high above all the rest where she felt closest to someone that she used to know.

She rarely brought anyone up here with her nowadays, though there had been one or two. Homura did not consider it betrayal, at least not anymore. It had been nine years since they had been forced apart, anyways. She was, although Kyubey would have argued that she was no longer, only human after all. Magical or not everyone has needs that must be attended to sooner or later.

For the most part Homura was reluctant to share this space with others. It was a place for her to be alone-or more precisely to be alone with someone else someone intangible. Imaginary was not the right word as there was nothing imaginary about this someone. Intangible was more fitting descriptor.

There was no way anyone else (even those with the same duties and powers as hers) could understand or help ease the burden. Memories of former universes and the greatest sacrifice lay sleeping an uneasy sleep deep within her soul far out of the reach of groping hands. Not even those who somehow managed to penetrate deepest into the murky depths of Homura could even begin to feel the outlines.

The closest one perhaps had gotten a glimpse, though. And that had been a few weeks back.

"**Amazing. Absolutely amazing. This could easily be the best view in the entire city. Forget penthouse clubs." **

Homura responded in silence as the other young woman gaped in wonder at the breathtaking view afforded by their extreme elevation.

"**You've obviously been holding out on me." **

The other shot a loaded grin at Homura as she closed the gap between them. Homura felt an arm snake around her waist and a hand settle lowly on her hip. She exhaled deeply and ground her backside against the other invitingly. Lips lightly grazed the back of her neck. The early evening air whistled lowly around them as Homura unwound in the embrace of another. The setting sun threw rays of crimson and sienna across the glass city forest as Homura let someone other than her beloved in.

She had just begun to gasp when the hot silence was momentarily punctuated by a whisper in her ear.

"**I knew you didn't bring me up all the way to Heaven tonight just for a view of the city…"**

A soft growl ripped up through Homura as she twisted out of the embrace and rose to her feet to face her bewildered companion. It wasn't like Homura to snap like this, but even ice could break.

**You have no idea what the view from Heaven is like.**

The coldness of Homura's voice stunned the baffled girl as she lay frozen, still propped up on one elbow. Homura bit her lip in a fleeting second of remorse as she looked away to avoid seeing the hurt seep across the other's face. She buried these early pangs of regret in the mindless task of refastening her clothing. The very next moment any regret for her behavior had evaporated along with the mood she had been in moments before the other's unknowing gaffe. She stared out blankly across the rooftops wishing for a glimpse into another world. Someone else's world.

She took no notice when the other quietly excused herself and vanished in a flash of purple light. It was rare that she got into these moods, at least in the presence of others but it wasn't unprecedented. Ice queen after all, Homura thought glumly.

It had not been right for her to behave like that, but she couldn't have helped it. Her reaction had been a reflex-involuntary. It wasn't often that another was able to touch a nerve like that. Those parts of her were buried so deep that when tapped or conjured unknowingly the one most shocked was invariably Homura herself. It was just that she actually had once upon a universe been afforded the view from heaven- and it had broken her heart.


	2. Chapter 2

The café door swung open funneling in a concentrated blast of late autumn chill. Kyoko shuddered and looked up in annoyance at the door for the perpetrator. In no time was her practiced Medusa glare swiftly replaced by a gape of genuine surprise.

A dark haired young woman brushed past her table for two and slid soundlessly into an adjacent booth. Kyoko took a split second to appreciate the fortuitous cut of the newcomer's leather jacket. She watched in smug silence sipping her tea as the other neatly undid her scarf and tossed her hair over one shoulder.

"Well this sure is a pleasant surprise-and I'm not just talking about those new pants of yours. But to what do I owe this immense pleasure?"

The girl calmly removed her jacket and folded it neatly across her lap. She absentmindedly continued to smooth over her windswept hair and noncommittally ran her eyes over a menu.

Kyoko smiled despite herself. Signature Ice Queen Homura.

"I must say, Akemi-san, that it is lovely to see you. And whether the meaning of this is that you are looking exceptionally lovely or that it is actually nice to see you again is for you to decide, naturally. Just remember that you're on top, boss."

Kyoko was too intrigued by this sweet blast from the past to be put-off by the uncharacteristic schoolgirl giggle that quickly rushed out after her words. Her smile had all but transformed into a full-blown leer by this point.

Homura remained silent, though Kyoko could tell that her attention was more or less focused on Kyoko. It wasn't like Homura to come to places like this, much less for this meeting to have been a coincidence.

"What has it been, four years since we last interacted in public like this? Well, I guess I'm doing most of the interacting right now but I can manage for the two of us at least for another while. You know what I could have sworn to have seen you a few months back out by the docks doing your thing and taking care of a wraith or too. I try to leave some left over for you occasionally just to keep you occupied. I'm generous like that, as you already know of course in a different context."

Silence stretched out between them as Kyoko swept her eyes over Homura's inky black tresses.

"Come on now just spill. How may I be of assistance? I'm all yours, or rather, what I meant to say is that I'm all ears."

Kyoko decided that her one-sided conversation with Homura must have looked somewhat like harassment to the other café patrons. Kyoko thus resorted to Plan B for which she had been hoping for all along, anyways.

"You're getting a little too rowdy for this place, Akemi-san. Why don't we go somewhere we can really talk? I don't want to see you get thrown outta here for disorderly conduct-there are families here, you know."

"We wouldn't want that to happen now would we." Homura replied coolly as she rose to her feet-effectively breaking through the thin sheet of ice that coated the majority of her interactions.

Kyoko chuckled in delight and had just barely opened her mouth to suggest a venue for their relocation as Homura glided past her table for the second time within fifteen minutes. How Homura was able to get her scarf and jacket back on in a grand total of three seconds was beyond even Kyoko's comprehension. Kyoko considered herself to be at the zenith of magical prowess (or at least experience) as far as magical girls went but Homura was something else. Perhaps there existed other perks associated with being a manipulator of time and space.

Kyoko madly scrambled to gather her things and throw down a few bills as Homura drifted out the door like a stately ghost into the early twilight.

The brisk air again hit Kyoko as she stepped out onto the street. This time she welcomed it, however. There was a slight metallic quality to the air tonight, playfully suggestive of something just short of dangerous. The night seemed to stretch out before her invitingly as she found her mark already blazing a trail through the half-darkness and pivoted on her heel to catch up.


	3. Chapter 3

"Thought you could shake me that easily, eh time traveler? I might be bound to the here and the now but do let me assure you that I can get around. Not that way but you know what I mean."

Kyoko did her best to appear casual as she leaned on the dark wooden counter top while catching her breath. Homura stirred her drink nonchalantly, mixing in the gentle sound of ice clinking against glass with Kyoko's panting.

The bartender, who had been appraising what he considered an awkward advance from behind the bar, sympathetically offered a weak smile to Kyoko as he dried a glass. Kyoko grinned back and shrugged lightly in mock defeat.

"Well Akemi-sama, please allow me to join you in imbibing then. All this talking to myself has gotten me rather thirsty."

Kyoko settled down heavily onto a stool next to Homura with a tired groan. She knew Homura would talk sooner or later. Perhaps today it would be later though, at the rate they were going. She tapped her foot against the rail and counted the bottles on the shelves-waiting.

Before too long the bartender, whom she knew well, wordlessly but helpfully placed her usual choice in front of her. There were only a few other patrons in the establishment-it was still early in the evening and the prices were somewhat prohibitive for the pre-moonlight crowd.

In all fairness it wasn't right of her to blame Homura for this stone cold front. Behind her teasing and mocking timidly hovered an uneasy understanding. Events of the shared past, or whatever a time-traveler would classify as time gone by, shimmered clearly at times like mirages in the grim deserts of their consciousness.

She stole a sideways glance at Homura who was now gazing down calmly at her drink. She wanted to take a good look at her. Now didn't seem like a good time to stare, however. The dim lighting of the bar didn't do too much to help with visibility, anyways. The subdued bar atmosphere and steadfast silence of Kyoko's companion rocked her slowly into the cradle of her memories.

So much of their time together had been spent either under the pale glow of the moon or nightmarish incandescence of other realms. Kyoko cocked her head and frowned slightly; try as she might she couldn't conjure up an even remotely recent memory of them together in the full light of day. At least not since before…well, a long time ago. Kyoko felt a familiar sadness begin tugging at something in her chest.

Believe it or not it almost an entire decade has passed. Everyone always said that time healed all wounds but what could that possibly mean to someone for whom time could be bent and events relived over and over again in a continuous loop? There had been moments, not long afterwards back when Homura could actually suffer to be held close, that Kyoko could have sworn to have glimpsed the end of the world in her eyes. It had chilled her soul.

No amount of numb soulless physicality could erase what she had seen reflected back to her in those frenzied moments deep at night. Nor did she have any delusions about what purposes of Homura's it could have been serving. Every gasp and shudder was laced with a sense of loss. Afterwards Kyoko would usually lie awake-watching daylight slowly bleed into the darkened room. Though Madoka hadn't been the sun and moon to her she needed to be held, too. Wasn't holding and being held part of the natural progression of such nights, anyways?

What prevented Kyoko from reaching out in the dark was her knowing that Homura would be light years away-perhaps even with another in some universe she had never had the dreadful privilege of visiting.

A particularly loud clink of glass against glass jerked Kyoko back from the muggy lagoon of her thoughts. Blinking twice she lay her forehead down onto the soft wood of the bar.

The bartender indistinctly cleared his throat somewhere in the back as she exhaled slowly through her nose. She had just spent the better part of what began as a pleasant enough evening chasing a girl she didn't even know anymore around the city just to sit in silence and wonder at the past.

_What the hell am I doing here?_

"Listen, sweetheart, this has been great and all but I really should-"

Without warning hands like marble wrapped around her wrists bringing her face to face with the time-traveler.

"I saw her, Kyoko. Or…something like her."

Kyoko, unable to speak, sat rigid in her seat. She didn't need to hear another word to immediately understand who was being spoken of.

So the cat's outta the bag, eh? She thought to herself weakly as she stared spellbound at the girl whom she had comforted and known once upon a time.

If in Kyoko's memories Homura had been beautiful here up close she was now otherworldly and sublime. Her lips, slightly parted tasting the air for Kyoko's reaction, were an impossible scarlet blush that stood in an almost violently stark contrast against her porcelain skin. The long midnight locks so frequently flipped over a shoulder flowed down and pooled around her shoulders like moonlit mercury. The most devastating of course were her eyes- violet and with a brightness and depth mirroring time itself. Kyoko found Homura's eyes to be as heartbreakingly lovely as she had years ago when she was still needed. Within them gleamed such a profound sadness that Kyoko could barely stand it. She wanted to look away-it was too much. Akemi Homura coupled with the shocking news was almost too much for Kyoko to handle.

"Wha..how do you mean, Homura?"

Kyoko was surprised to find her lips moving despite it all-her words slipped out in little more than a hushed whisper. Homura shook her head slowly and glanced downwards at her feet.

Before Kyoko could try again Homura lifted her gaze.

Homura's eyes again locked with Kyoko's, inscrutable and unknowable in their wild loveliness. Kyoko finally pried hers away to catch the other's lips move unmistakably-

Madoka


	4. Chapter 4

The light changed—generously flashing the color of safety to its people below. The people obeyed their kind automated shepherd with chins tucked into jacket collars and arms pinned close for warmth.

Cars honked in a tired chorus while tires squealed in practiced complaint slipping and sliding over shiny black streets. The winter sun bore down disinterestedly upon the icy world. Homura passed through the streets like a ghost.

For the first time in a long time she felt aimless. Maybe restless was the right word-not that it mattered. She just couldn't stop moving for some reason. Like a water snake she soundlessly navigated the condensed stream of human traffic flowing sluggishly along the corporate district streets. Why people felt the inexplicable urge to come out in droves to waste their lunch breaks sure beat her. Though the day was nowhere even near over she had absolutely no intention of heading back to the droll little campus in which she spent the majority of her time off as a magical vigilante. Fluid mechanics at 2 p.m. was just not going to happen today. Her brain felt like it was on fire, anyway. Was this what they called insanity? The answer was not so clear at the moment.

Anything would be better than sitting in front of a screen all afternoon. A split second decision was made to head in the general direction of the dockyards. She let her thoughts begin migrating toward the back of her mind as she slinked through the crowd.

Kyoko had been absolutely baffled by the news. Homura hadn't gone to her expecting any sort of explanation but she had been anticipating something along the lines of comfort if not just for old times' sake. Kyoko had to be somewhat forcefully reminded of that intention. Afterwards, however, she had sat wordlessly upright against the headboard for an entire hour still dumbstruck by what she had just been told. If Homura's heart hadn't already been at the bottom of the ocean she may have found the other's awe endearing.

Nine years ago was when her heart had taken the plunge. She couldn't help but feel as if all her efforts, painful forays into the depths of time, and love had gone to waste. Of course she had been told otherwise after the fact, but people tend to say anything for another privileged flash of thigh.

Never in her darkest dreams could she have anticipated that her last run of the same nightmarish month would culminate in such a fundamentally irreparable loss. And for Madoka's own mother to not even…it was just too much. Tragedy, apparently, knew no bounds.

She hadn't been completely alone in mourning Madoka but it had been pretty damn close. It had required a borderline brutal beating in a wraith-infested warehouse to shock Kyoko's memories back to life. Mami's two cents on the matter, at least as told by Kyoko, was more or less in alignment with theirs.

Homura hadn't bothered to search for the strength to approach Sayaka about it. In all honesty the two had never gotten along in any of the times and spaces that they had been acquainted. Sayaka never seemed to put her faith in any place or person for which/whom it was deserved. There were times though, in passing of course, when Homura glimpsed what could have been the dull subdued glint of profound loss in Sayaka's eyes. She was probably wrong, though, and these moments would pass in the blink of an eye-washed away like writing in the sand.

A decade had rushed to fill the void in her heart. Homura's own sense of loss had become heavy, smooth, and achingly familiar like a stone in one's pocket. But something was happening. And now that it was Homura didn't know what to do.

She, of course, had dreamed continuously of just this. Her dreams of reunification ranged from the deeply horrific to the astoundingly lovely. Despite having had Madoka die in her arms over and over again in real time her dreams never ceased to amaze her. As distressful as the dreams could be the worst would unfailingly be the moment she woke up. Reality would crush her under its timeless weight-collapsing her lungs in the fading darkness of pre-dawn. A familiar sorrow would bloom viciously in her heart-exquisite yet excruciating in its heartrending sadness.

And now her dreams were threatening maddeningly to cross over into whatever world this was. Is that what all of this meant? Or was the universe again simply jerking at Akemi Homura's heartstrings like it had so often in the past? She couldn't for the life of her deny that she hadn't been dying every minute of every day for something like this to happen. She had, after all, always been waiting.

A child shrilly whined to his mother by Homura's left. She jerked her head ever so slightly to the right in mild irritation. The glass pane she perpetually lived behind when around others was on occasion woefully not as soundproof as she would have liked.

The boy had dropped one of his mittens on the busy sidewalk and his mother wheeled around in unmasked annoyance to scan the ground for it. The mother and child were beginning to obstruct the mindless pace of traffic and a few unsympathetic individuals grumbled as they passed.

The mother bit her lip anxiously as she fruitlessly searched for the little mitten amidst the unrelenting onslaught of boots and dark dress shoes.

"I'm sorry Yuichi we'll get you another pair but we're going to be late-"

As if out of thin air Homura appeared calmly before her with the trampled mitten in one hand.

"Oh! Well… thank you very much, miss. I couldn't see it at all the street is so busy… how lucky…"

Homura dipped her head ever so slightly and watched as the mother and child turned to continue on to wherever in the world they were going that afternoon. She couldn't help but notice the woman cast a final look of unease and no small degree of intrigue over her shoulder.

"Still as sweet as ever, eh, Homura-chan?" A voice asked quietly behind her.

Suddenly the world was still. Noise from the street seemed to have retreated into a vacuum. Her heart thumped torturously as the impossible sweetness of that voice wafted out towards her through the cracks between dimensions.

She swallowed and closed her eyes. A second as fleeting as an eternity passed as she bravely opened them again. She shook slightly as she slowly turned toward the source of her unsteady trepidation and wild anticipation.

Somewhere, leagues upon leagues deep beneath the ocean, a chest of ice cracked just a sliver leaking the ruby glimmer of what may once have been Homura's heart. A celestial wind she had once felt long ago pried tenderly at her usually unmoving leather jacket collar.

Homura stood in the empty street, with unfocused eyes wide open, transfixed by the pearly pink ends of long hair lifted up languorously by the unearthly breeze.


	5. Chapter 5

_The quiet pressed in_ on Homura from all sides. All was still as she stood frozen by her disbelief. She couldn't understand what she was seeing or what she had heard just moments that seemed like hours ago.

Before she could continue grappling with the present impossibility the sidewalk began to slide up from beneath her feet. The traffic lights bowed down toward one another in a huddle as they sank serenely down into the swirling ground. With them the buildings lowered themselves- melting dutifully into the dark purple void opening up where sidewalk and iced over streets had just been.

A somewhat familiar space wind flipped experimentally at the hem of Homura's skirt. She broke her gaze away from the specter to look down at herself. The void that had initially only pooled around her ankles was now at her waist. She felt no alarm, however, except for the small degree of bewilderment as to why she felt no alarm.

"Come with me. For now, at least…"

The breeze picked up without warning and dark purple rushed in. -

_How strange it was_ to watch a planet rise. Wasn't it usually that one would watch the sun or at the very least a moon rise? There was a certain alien beauty to a planet rising, though. It didn't much matter whether this was due to the novelty of the whole thing or simply its objective loveliness.

The stars gleamed knowingly in the backdrop-deceivingly bright for their immeasurable distance. Homura wondered whether the things most desirable were automatically the things most unattainable. There had to be some stoic logic to it.

The planet rose higher in the sky- casting its radiance over the grassy plain. She was able to just barely make out the two small moonlike orbs rising adoringly along with their celestial mistress. It wasn't any planet Homura had ever seen. Its deep fuchsia hue suggested violet seas. A calmness swept over her.

The wind affectionately combed its breathy fingers through her hair. She found herself sitting with legs neatly folded. Genuine wonder had been so hard to come by for so much of her life. There had certainly been moments of matchless brilliance, however. She shyly turned to gaze up at what she was fighting to believe was one of the sourcs for such moments.

The otherworldly woman, a heavenly iteration of a girl she had once known and hoped for, smiled softly without taking her radiant carnation eyes off of the world rising before them. In the glow of the periwinkle planet she was the most profoundly stunning thing Homura had ever seen in every dimension she'd ever been to.

"Quite something, isn't it? So many of these realms are born, thrive, and die side by side. And to think that each and every one considers themselves to be alone in this boundless space."

Her voice was the most exquisite mix of improbable wonder and unknowable sadness. Listening to her was like listening to the rich golden ticking of time itself.

Homura opened her mouth to speak but found her jaw locked and voice held captive by her incredulousness. The sense of calm from seconds ago had been swiftly replaced by an amazing aching.


	6. Chapter 6

_By some miracle she_ was able to speak. Apparently miracles were permissible in this existence, as well.

"Is this…are you…"

Again Madoka smiled her morose half smile. She kept her gaze fixed upward as she eventually addressed the non-question.

"This is whatever you want it to be. That is-whatever you believe it to be it surely is."

Somewhere in the back of Homura's dumbstruck mind popped up the image of a blue caterpillar. The image was dismissed as swiftly as it was conjured.

She had to know more.

Bizarre words stumbled out automatically-shocking even their own progenitor once they had escaped.

"Can I touch you?"

A quarter of a second passed as Homura rushed to her own rescue.

"What I meant to-what I… Are you real? Is this real?"

With that Madoka tilted her chin downward in a manner tinged with lament.

"That's not a question I can answer for you I'm afraid. Does the glow of this world and her moons feel real? What about the quality of my voice? I wish I could tell you-I really do, Homura-chan."

Homura gaped up in frustration as tears traitorously threatened to rush out. The dam held, however, and her vision cleared as the watery lens retreated. The foreign early morning wind swept through the grasses around them. Wonder and longing bloomed simultaneously within Homura as she quietly watched Madoka.

Off in the distance boundlessly wide craters stretched out in unlimited azure plains. Their sharp ridges stabbed upward at the sky like mountains from a place more familiar than this. Three feet or so to the left of Homura's tightly clenched fist bloomed several small turquoise flowers. She exhaled and loosened her death grip on an innocent handful of dewy grass. Rising to her feet Homura cleared her throat and flipped her hair over a shoulder just for fortitude's sake.

"I've waited every single moment for this and now that it's happening…well if it's happening… You see I've dreamt about this continually awake, asleep, and nowhere in particular. Please just tell me this isn't another dream. That's really all I need to hear from you if you are who I think you are."

For the first time in what had been years, centuries, or perhaps even eons the other turned toward her. Homura felt as if she had been turned to stone. The unearthly beauty and impossible wilderness she saw in Madoka's eyes were something she had never given much weight to in her dreams and fantasies. They were givens, constants-things taken for granted and assumed from the very beginning. But to actually witness them here and now was something Homura had been completely unprepared for.

"This is real for me. Then again very few things to have ever occurred or existed are false to me. I'm sorry that I can't help you understand better. You must feel greatly dissatisfied."

Hearing that evanescent voice so destructively familiar and yet so inexplicably strange crashed against the shores of Homura's artificial composure.

It wasn't long before she found herself on her knees. She collapsed forward against Madoka-clutching at her as if blind.

She closed and opened her ears. The ever-present breeze whistled lowly all around her. It rushed up against her supportively like a purring cat. As chaotic as this was she couldn't ignore the growing sense of tenuous elation that persistently climbed up the stairs of her being.

"It doesn't matter. You said we'd meet again so I believe this. I believe in you so I believe in this-" Homura's voice caught raggedly in her throat as she felt hands in her hair.

"I know your suffering has been limitless…it's wrong to imply that I know your pain…but I too know what it is to wait. I've watched civilizations rise and fall. I've seen the beginning of it all and I've also seen the end. Eras have flourished and perished in the palm of my hand and the entire time I have also been without. I am undoubtedly undeserving of your sorrow. Can you cast aside your attachment to something as immaterial and undefined as what I now represent?"

The far away tenderness of Madoka's voice twisted matter-of-factly at Homura's mind.

"That's…that's not something I think you have the right to request of me. Actually I know you have absolutely no right to request anything of me."

Homura shocked herself by pushing away from Madoka and again rising to her feet. She felt surprisingly steady and clear-headed.

"Why have you brought me here? Why now? I've needed you every moment of my life so…why now?"

It took every ounce of her strength to stare resolutely into the twin light crimson pools of disorder and godly detachment. Homura fully expected herself to be functionally blind in a matter of seconds.

This time it was Madoka who looked away first. She cast her celestial gaze down and furrowed a brow ever so slightly in what could have been a trace of pain.

Homura found herself absolutely floored by the dubious reality of what was going on. Was it really possible for two beings who had once been so close to now be separated by much more than even vast time and space? There was something brutally ironic and maybe even comically tragic about it.

She shook her head and timidly let out a dark chuckle. The delicate turquoise petals precariously close to her left foot quivered. The planet and her attendants continued their ascent up to heaven-cold in their indifference.

"You know what? I'm going to cut the crap right now with my questions because I sure to hell am not getting any answers. Well despite this thing potentially not even being real it's pretty goddamn unbelievable, don't you think? I mean, here '_we_' are watching some phantom planet shoot up the sky like a-"

Her sneer flew from her face in a flash of ghost-like movement. Madoka's hands, as cold as oceans, were on her shoulders. For the third and most unbearable time yet Homura found herself lost in those eyes.

"Who is to say that even a single heartbeat of yours has gone unnoticed? What could you possibly know about what has dwelled longingly in your shadows-what has waited for you as you have supposedly waited for it? Please believe me. Please forgive me."

Homura said nothing as she concentrated on forcing a blank stare. Pretending to feel nothing in such a position was a lot more difficult than she could have imagined. She felt genuine hurt; this was getting nowhere and not once in the thousands of times she had played out this situation in her head did this reunion go so awry. She finally looked away and scowled at the mortified flowers bearing witness to this unreal exchange. Maybe it would be better if this really were just a dream…she would know not to mess up the real thing when it finally did happen.

Madoka let go of her and slowly stepped back.

"Homura-chan…I'm being selfish…it's already more than enough that you remember me. I must protect you and I'm not…please forget this. Awaken from it as if it were nothing but an unsettling dream…You have called me by the name I once had…I am content. "

The wind suddenly picked up without warning and the grasses around them began shimmering. The space breeze whipped Madoka's pink hair up around her like a cape as Homura's vision began to fuzz around the edges. Jabbed in the gut by the abrupt sickening realization of what was happening Homura snapped her head up with last minute desperation.

"I don't care if you're not her please wait! I'm not done talking with you and we've only just arrived here. Please, Madoka, don't leave me again at least not right now. I need you just for a little longer."

The wind continued to pick up and the rising planet in the sky seemed to melt back into space and the stars suspended in it. The craters crumbled within themselves and the gales had all but begun to roar in her ears. Everything seemed to rush inwards toward some unseen vortex as the scene slipped rapidly out of focus. It was too soon-nothing had been accomplished. Had she singlehandedly destroyed the one moment she had been waiting for all her life? It was absurdly unfair that she had to be so self-destructive…

Tears streamed silently as Madoka rose in the sky like a crimson morning star. The very next moment Homura was pitched into a cold velvety darkness. She strained her unseeing eyes in the absolute blackness hoping for a glimpse of the star she had just unwittingly cast aside. It was no use. She was gone.

Homura had not even begun to mourn this most recent loss when she heard a soft voice in the dark.

"We aren't done here…there's something left unfinished."

And with that she slipped back into the state of unknowing.

_Homura woke with a gasp_. Her cheeks were wet with hot tears. A blanket had somehow ended up on the tidy dorm room floor. A sleeping computer on a nearby desk calmly flashed a muted green every fifteen seconds. Somehow all these relics of her earthly existence-an existence without Madoka-failed to depress her as they usually did upon waking.

She sat up and looked around the dark blue room. Light from the street filtered amicably through her blinds. A car horn faintly blared outside somewhere-the sound more congenial than harsh. Morning was still hours and hours away. She rinsed with a refreshing minty mix that always sedated her after such tempestuous dreams and splashed her face with cold water. Going back to sleep at this point was out of the question. She plopped down in her desk chair-fully intending to spend the remainder of the night flipping through the colored channels of her own mind. What were they not done with?

Before Homura could continue cautiously approaching the subject of the disastrously real though superbly lovely dream she heard a crash in the hall outside. Her eyes darted critically toward the alarm clock glowing on her nightstand. 1:38 a.m. on a Friday night-no surprises there. She had never been the type to feel bashful for unfashionably early bedtimes. She had had her fair share of late nights (or early mornings as purists would insist) as a college student.

She heard peals of uncontrollable giggling and what sounded like scrapes against the wall. It seemed as if someone were struggling to get to his or her feet in a fit of complete drunkenness. Another crash.

Homura grit her teeth and flung open the door prepared to give her signature violet death glare. What she saw was something rather unexpected.

A girl who lived two doors down from her sat with legs ungracefully apart on the floor. In front of her was another in the process of aiding her resurrection. While this was no uncommon sight here in the dormitories there was something absolutely out of place but not entirely unwelcome about it.

Madoka turned to look at Homura-who stared stupidly from her bedroom door. She smiled apologetically and cocked her head to the side.

"Sorry, Yamasaki-san overdid it a bit at karaoke. Her boyfriend was even worse for the wear so I figured I'd see to it that she got home safely. I didn't mean to wake you!"

Somehow Homura didn't believe the last part of that but she didn't say anything. Those words were probably some of the sweetest Homura had ever heard in her twenty plus years of existence.

"Um, I know it would be asking for a little too much but would you mind helping me with Yamasaki-san? She just needs to be put to bed."

Homura wordlessly and robotically lurched out of her room to fasten her hands upon an incredibly blitzed Yamasaki Hiromi's left arm. In a series of efficient mechanical movements she managed to edge the pink haired specter out of the way and shuffle Hiromi into her bedroom. She automatically opened a large bottle of spring water and left it on the drunken one's nightstand. Turning to leave, Homura thoughtfully slid a trashcan to the foot of the bed and closed Hiromi's door. Only forty seconds or so had passed since she had last heard that wonderful voice ask her for a hand. She strode dutifully back to her room-a magical girl graduating from fighting wraiths to rescuing the inebriated.

Her usual confusion had been wiped away. A mysterious and overwhelming sense of resolve and calm had settled over her. She felt almost purposeful, now, an hour or so after midnight here with a ghost or maybe someone more. Something kicked in her abdomen as she saw Madoka leaning against her doorframe. Madoka eyed her carefully but affectionately not dissimilar to the way you regard a teething puppy.

A searing hot image raced through Homura's mind like a flash of white lightning. She had mentioned something about them not being done, right? Homura didn't feel quite like herself as she motioned for Madoka to enter her room. To be honest she hadn't felt this much conviction, certainty, and raw _need _in a long time. It was liberating. So this was happening.

Madoka stopped at the desk and lightly ran her fingers over the gun metal casing of Homura's computer. With her back to Homura in the dark, silhouetted so sharply by the soft blue of the night, Madoka looked dangerous. Homura was as captivated as ever though as she was feeling somewhat dangerous herself tonight.

She took a step forward but caught herself-ever the chivalrous.

"I didn't mean to say what I said earlier…I was out of line. There's just no…no practicing or getting used to seeing you again. But it's great, you know, seeing you again that is. It's just that I've been waiting for this, whatever it is, for so long now. I'm glad you're here right now with me I take everything I said back, and um…I'm babbling aren't I."

Madoka turned her head to face Homura without turning her body. She smiled at Homura in the heavy half darkness. The smile was genuine, warm, and almost tauntingly inviting. Relief and something else crept over Homura as she slowly inched closer.

It felt like her thin night shirt was clinging to her. Homura pulled at it uncomfortably and was somewhat surprised to find a thin layer of sweat. Carrying Hiromi to her room hadn't presented any problems so this was mildly alarming. Homura wanted to giggle or at least make some type of safe noise to diffuse the palpable tension that was building in the room. Nothing about what was happening or what was about to happen felt particularly humorous, however.

Homura stopped a few inches away when she finally got close. Madoka stood as still and elegant as the moon itself with her back to Homura. If the moon could be described as expectant then all the better. Homura stared with slightly hooded lids at the delicate nape of the other's neck.

Her throat felt constricted and her hands had begun to tremble. The weight of her love cascaded impatiently over her. She could hear her own heart beating. What had started out as the purest and most divine of loves had remained true to its core. The only difference was that in its inception they had been children and now they were not.

"So, does that mean this is real?" Homura whispered almost inaudibly.

She felt her heart stop and drop down through her feet as Madoka grabbed her hand and placed it rather imperiously on her upper abdomen in an advantaged spot.

"Why don't you touch me and find out?"


End file.
